With improved weather, the Budleigh bowlers played a good number of matches this week and are now closing in on the last few games of the internal competitions, writes David Roberts.

In the Mixed Pairs, Gwen Hurst and Andrew Cardy booked their place in the final, fighting back from a slow start against Graham Rant and Hilary Medley to win their semi-final match 20-15.

Trailing 7-11 at the halfway, stage they won six of the last nine ends registering 13 shots in that period and they will now play the winners of the other semi-final which is between Mo Bond and Andrew Skudder and Penny Weeks and Tony Gooding.

Penny and Tony played well to win their quarter-final. In what a classic ‘match of two halves’ they defeated Ann Vincent and David Tomlinson 22-16.

The finalists for the Men’s Pairs have been decided as Brian Ward and David Roberts played well together to defeat Peter Hillman and Andrew Cardy 18-15.

With four bowlers in good form this season it was a difficult match to call, but a consistent display from Brian Ward made the difference with a man of the match performance.

Andrew Cardy is through to the semi-final of the Men’s two-wood competition with a 16-5 win over Andrew Skudder and the remaining quarter-finals will be played this week as Peter Hillman, David Roberts, Brian Ward, Gerry Roberts, David Tomlinson and Paul Griffin compete for the final three places.

Peter Hillman secured his place with a hard-fought 13-11 victory against Ralph Cartwright.

In the ladies’ competitions, there were wins for Penny Weeks in the two wood; 16-10 against Gwen Hurst and in the 106 competition, Penny recorded two impressive victories against Hilary Medley and Mo Bond, winning 114-62 and 106-48 respectively. Penny also beat Gwen Hurst in the four wood championship singles 21-12.

A great series of wins for Penny as she tops the two wood and 106 groups and is through to the last four of the singles championship.

In two other 106 matches Gwen Hurst defeated Mo Bond 114-84, but Mo did record a victory 111-87 against Hilary Medley and in the two-wood was victorious against Gwen Hurst 17-10 scoring fifteen shots without reply in the early stages.

As the club enters the last few weeks of the outdoor season, the indoor section starts up this week and members wishing to play should contact club secretary, Paul Griffin, to sign up. Safety and hygiene are at the top of the list and the club looks forward to welcoming back its indoor members.